This Shrimp Needs A Hero
by Aess Box
Summary: Dragons were everything she wasn't. He was everything she wasn't.
1. This Shrimp Needs a Hero

**This Shrimp Needs A Hero**

One extremely cold, rainy day, a certain blue-haired mage was reading a book in the guild hall of Fairy Tail. She liked this kind of weather, because it was the perfect time to just sink herself into the world of fiction, get carried away by the magic of words, and not want to come back to the real world for a while. Books were amazing sources of entertainment for her. It's no wonder that she keeps a library's worth of books in one place, which is in her dorm in Fairy Hills, and she is content.

The novel that she was currently reading was about dragons. She had a fascination to them, for some reason. Maybe it was because they were symbols of power, or of strength, or of Natsu, or of epicness. Great things. Greater words. Extravagance?

But the dragons were everything she wasn't, she'd always think. Dragons were big, mighty, fire-breathing, and respected. Levy was small, only for good use because of her intelligence, weak, jealous of her other guildmates (but she doesn't show nor say it, because she is a good mage like that), and just everything dragons are not. Which brings her back to the question: why does she like dragons so much?

Anyway, let's get back to Levy in the real world, and not in her thoughts. She's sitting there now, the smell of rain filling her nose, the sound of the rain and thunder booming in her ears, the words of the fictional dragon book now stopping to flow into her mind. Why was she reading about dragons? Why did she take an interest to them? She was very ironic that way.

Levy had not noticed someone approaching her from behind, though the footsteps were heavy, the swearing was very much heard, and the eyes were on her. And her book. Spiky, black hair, intimidating red eyes, nice built and all.

"You seem to like the dragon books a lot, Shrimp."

A bell rang off in her head. Lightning flashed. Thunder struck. The rain stopped all of a sudden, as if his presence literally brightened up her day. Behind her was the very reason why she was interested in dragons in the first place.

They were everything she wasn't. He was everything she wasn't. She needed the Dragon Slayer of Iron to save her own weak, small, ugly self a lot of times. Levy needed someone to torture her and make her fall in love with him, to be her partner in the Tenrou Island S-Rank Exam, to make her feel bigger, to make her feel stronger, to make her feel safe. This shrimp needed a hero.

Gajeel Redfox is the hero. The dragon saves the shrimp's ass. A lot of times. And the next question that pains Levy McGarden's entire being hits home.

Did he need her?


	2. Storytelling

**2**

**A continuation! Yay! Thank you for the favourites and follows. I might as well get this story to go somewhere!**

* * *

_Does this hero of hers need a shrimp like her?_

That was the question that always seemed to make its way into Levy's mind. It bothered her a lot, she'd admit. Was she of any good use to the iron dragon slayer at all, or did he simply partner up with her because he felt pity for her weakness? Why did the universe make her this way? Insecure. Weak (really, Levy?). Not beautiful (I object!). Has absolutely no role to play in the guild at all because all she ever is to her guild mates is smart. Where does intelligence take itself in a battlefield? Definitely not next to strength.

"What's that, Shorty?" a voice asked behind her. Oh. Hop back into reality now. Gajeel Redfox asked her about the book she was reading, or should I say, "reading" at the moment. Something about her fascination with dragons.

"Oh, hi, Gajeel," Levy greeted with a half-hearted smile. "What's what?"

"That book," Gajeel gruffly replied, eyes still on the book's cover. "Fascination with dragons and stuff. Hey, you only noticed me now, thanks."

"A-Ah, sorry," the solid script mage muttered. "I am always lost in my thoughts."

"Is the story interesting so far?"

"Um, I just started reading it, actually, but it's not too much at the moment."

"Tell me about it."

"There's nothing to tell you about. I just sta-"

"Tell me what you read about so far, then."

When had Gajeel become so interested in whatever she read? Well, it isn't the first time he'd been interested in whatever she was doing- _what are you thinking, Levy?_ It's true, though. The iron dragon slayer watched her do her magic with Fried's runes twice. _But I guess that's all_, she thought as she let out a sigh.

"Well, basically, there's a dragon," Levy started to tell the story. "It lives high in the cold mountain called Pryos. Ironic, isn't it? Pyros means _fire_ in another language."

_Not the right time to tell him __that__ now, Levy, _she thought. But it seemed that Gajeel didn't mind this tiny piece of new info, so she carried on.

"Anyway, he was feared by all in the tiny village at the foot of the mountain. Feared, as in, _that dragon's going to kill us if we don't do good_ or something like that, not the good kind of fear. Get it?"

Gajeel nodded in reply. Levy wasn't quite sure if he was enjoying her storytelling so far. He asked for the boring, least climactic part, anyway.

"All that the dragon wanted to be was accepted in the society because all he'd ever been was alone. Mommy and Daddy dragon left him there because of the destruction the humans caused them, and they fled. They hid the poor dragon in the mountain so that he wasn't seen and harmed by the humans at that time. But the times changed and so did people. Contradictory to the past, the humans didn't dare to go to the mountain, because they knew there was a dragon there, and there was the possibility that it could eat them alive and all.

"But that never was the dragon's intention, as I've said earlier. The dragon wasn't afraid of getting hurt anymore, he was afraid that maybe all the beings he wanted to befriend wouldn't befriend him back. And he was alone and cold."

"Well, of course he'd be cold," Gajeel said in a matter-of-fact tone. "He's in a damn snowy mountain."

"No, I don't mean literally cold," the female mage replied. "By _cold_, I meant, _alone, no company, longing for someone to care_? That kind of thing."

"Oh."

"So basically, there's all there is to what I've read so far."

A silence came upon the two Fairy Tail mages as they turned to see that the guild hall was a mess once again without their knowing it. They've been caught up in each others' presences that everything else didn't seem to matter in that span of time. _How did that happen?_

Gajeel took the book with his big hands and traced a finger down the intricate designs that were embossed on the book, as if the book was entirely new to him, as if he'd never seen a book before. He sure has seen the various books Levy would bring to training sessions before the S-Class Exams, and they looked a tad better in terms of design than the book that was in Gajeel's hands.

One thing kind of caught her off-guard, though.

"What page did you stop in?" he asked her. "I'd like to know what happens next."

"Wow," Levy said in surprise. "Never knew you'd be this interested in a story like that."

_Like myself,_ she thought. And of all the stories she reads in front of him, sometimes aloud for no apparent reason, this catches his eye. Wait, it caught his ears, since he never read from the paper.

"It reminds me of myself," the iron dragon slayer told her with a sad look in his eyes, and that wasn't too surprising to hear, until it hit her.

He wasn't quite welcome when he joined Fairy Tail, what with the humiliation of Shadow Gear by his hand, his getting beat-up by Laxus, Jet, and Droy, the jeers he received when he performed onstage. But he wanted acceptance. He wanted to be forgiven for the terror he caused in the past. He wanted the world to see that he had changed.

He was the cold, lonely dragon in the mountains, and the guild at the foot of it was the fearful village.


End file.
